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EU High Representative Josep Borrell has announced that the wife of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, will be present at the EU Foreign Affairs Council scheduled for Monday. “On Monday I will welcome Yulia Navalnaya to the EU Foreign Affairs Council. EU ministers will send a strong message of support to freedom fighters in Russia and honor the memory of Alexei Navalny,” Borrell wrote on X.
But on Sunday the news that spread was that Alexei Navalny died, perhaps, shortly before his possible release, as part of an exchange of prisoners. The revelation comes from Germany and, more precisely, from the German tabloid Bild. “Alexei Navalny, the most prominent opponent of Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime, died on February 16, 2024, the start day of the Munich Security Conference. Exactly one month before the presidential elections in Russia. And perhaps shortly before his possible release,” Bild reported, citing its sources.
The exchange hypothesis
Prior to Navalny’s death “an exchange of prisoners was planned between Moscow, Washington and Berlin. Putin wanted to get back the Tiergarten murderer, an agent who shot an opponent of the regime in Berlin in 2019.” The Russian president “even hinted at it publicly in an interview with Tucker Carlson. There was talk of the possibility that Putin could release Navalny in exchange,” the German newspaper reported.
The bruises on the body
Another newspaper, the independent periodical Novaya Gazeta Europe which has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin for years, reported that Navalny’s body is currently in the district hospital in the city of Salekhard, in the far north of Siberia. An autopsy has not yet been carried out, at least until Saturday, Noavaya Gazeta reported, adding that Navalny’s body apparently had several bruises, including one on his chest. An anonymous emergency service employee said the bruises indicated that Navalny may have been having convulsions before his death and may have been restrained by prison camp employees. The bruise on his chest would indicate that resuscitation attempts were indeed made. However, the Novaya Gazeta informant did not directly see Navalny’s body after his death, but was only informed of his condition by colleagues. German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann has asked Moscow to hand over the body of dissident Alexei Navalny to allow an independent examination into the causes of his death. “Russian leaders must have this minimum gesture of respect towards the late Navalny and his family, after denying it to the activist while he was alive.” “Only with an independent investigation – he added – will it be possible to establish, for the benefit of world public opinion and the Russian people, what the whole world already knows: Putin killed Navalny, directly, or indirectly through the conditions of the detention of he”.
Navalny, Russians continue to lay flowers in his honor
Navalny’s wife in Brussels on Monday
The opponent’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, who published a photo of herself and her husband on Instagram accompanied by the caption “I love you”, will be in Brussels on Monday, where she will be received by the President of the European Council Charles Michel and will participate in the Business Council foreign. “On Monday I will welcome Yulia Navalnaya to the EU Foreign Affairs Council. EU ministers will send a strong message of support to freedom fighters in Russia and honor the memory of Alexei Navalny,” announced the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy.